Tutorial: Chapter 1
by Memory465
Summary: Awakening within a prison, four strangers venture out and attempt to make sense of, and survive the odd new world they've been inexplicably placed in.


Everyone but vile hackers starts off as a low-level scrub. Some quickly lose the taste for adventuring and go back to play a silly game lacking in challenge, the poor, meek souls. Some beat the game and put it down for good. The meticulous and/or greedy seek out every hidden item and piece of lore so there's no more mystery to the game world they're vicariously living in. This is the story of a handful of would-be heroes and villains coming to terms with the landscape that is the ambiguous, shifting world known as Tutorial.

 **Chapter 1: We All Died and became Inexplicably Resurrected**

The young woman, a young man, an ancient cat, and a mysterious metal slab simultaneously became aware of each other's existence within the confines of an abandoned, iron-barred cell. The prison they were contained in was a moss-ridden, rat and cockroach infested locale typical of dark and gritty fantasy games, with not a clean spoon in sight. Though the prison cell apparently was built for a whole gang of nefarious bovine creatures, to the young woman, it was simply too claustrophobic and she experienced a minor lag issue upon introducing herself.

"I am Aria. I don't know who any of you are but I'm getting out of here. Yet before that, I would know your names," the young woman spoke, though her mouth didn't quite match up with the pacing of her words.

"Wow, that split second delay in your speech really reminds me of a television I need to fix! I am known as..." the young man started, only to be deliberately, angrily cut off by the cat.

"Less whining. It hurts my effort at restraint from clawing someone's eyes out in the next two minutes!" the cat blurted, starting in a civilized tone and quickly dropping to palpable cat-rage. The cat had been perched on a low-hanging wooden beam adjacent to the sheet metal ceiling, which was quite rusted and held no premise of actually containing any climbing-capable creature who wished to escape their cell. She introduced herself over the shock of the two humans at the existence of a talking cat, as Vilossia of the 9th Ebony Moon Kingdom, Grand Sorceress of ...something, until she started smacking an errant wasp to death. Her ancient age was apparent not for her physical appearance, but the existence of a small, rotating, three-pronged metal toy meant to distract anxious people, hanging on to a magnificent platinum-inlaid, leather collar... clearly an artifact from a silly, bygone era.

The mysterious slab spoke no words, only observing how the shared cell's inmates could further its own purposes. It collected dust in silence, biding its time, plotting.

The young man cautiously, timidly awaited another of his cell mates to speak up before attempting his introduction again. He figured, if we're all stuck in the same cell at the same time, there must be a good reason for it, so he should attempt to make a good impression. He thought to himself, you never know how far a good or bad first impression will take you. He rapidly weighed the pros and cons of various "class" options, all the while trying to ascertain how much of a fit his choice would be meshed with the apparent strengths and weaknesses of his new comrades, whom he assumed he'd be spending a substantial amount of time with after escaping their confinement. He briefly thought to give himself a far more heroic-sounding name that did not start with an "A", as Aria had already claimed that piece of notoriety. "I..."

"Aria's right. Let's escape now. I'm bored of the lot of you. If you choose to follow me you will survive, however, you follow my lead, and clean up the messes I make. I will tolerate nothing but doting, omnipresent affection from all my slaves, er, subordinates. Slaves. Whatever. Goodbye," Vilossia nearly screeched. Her voice, once again, started off gentle and quiet and rapidly became a guttural spit-fest, coupled with a rather intimidating stare to the young man yet to introduce himself. Vilossia made a leap to a jagged, open hole in the ceiling dipping inward, as if rainwater had gradually pushed it down into the shape of a lawsuit-producing playground slide. "Oh and whichever one of you brought that ugly chunk of metal in here, if I see it again it's getting peed on. I don't like it ONE BIT! Meow Can Opener Spell Meow!" Vilossia howled, and with a gesture and a wiggle of her whiskers, the entire useless ceiling was ripped off. As soon as the young man stopped wincing from the eardrum-shredding sound of metal being ripped apart and casually tossed aside to fall upon the ground some 15 meters below their cell, Vilossia had vanished, leaving only a faintly-glowing hairball in her place.

The Slab, if it could nod and smile cryptically, would have done so that very moment, for things, after an unknowable wait, were finally set into motion. The glowing hairball became caught in a draft and gingerly landed upon the Slab's flat, forearm-length "head", left a tiny rivulet of sorceress-cat drool upon its face (the only side with any sort of inscription, which no one had bothered to read yet) and was blown away to the floor just as quickly. The rivulet of magic cat drool from the hairball produced a brief, intense glow seeming to meld with the Slab itself, then faded away, leaving no evidence of itself.

Aria, clearly impressed with the feat of the cat, took no time climbing out of the ineffective prison cell, only taking time not to cut herself on the shards of rusted metal on the edges of the wall.

"Now why am I suddenly wearing a backpack from a university I never went to, and never have to use the bathroom again?" the young man wondered aloud, assuming the other subject of Vilossia's ire was still visible and present in the room. He examined the cell, hoping to catch sight of the Slab in its original position, laid against the wall as if someone had placed it aside for a moment and forgotten it for several millennia. It was no where to be seen. "I know I didn't imagine that... even that grouchy-ass cat sorceress made its existence known. So why am I... eh. Guess I'll just find my way out of here, too." The young man adjusted the straps on his newfound backpack, which had only one distinguishing feature, a very obscure four-panel web-comic embroidered on a pocket, featuring one or two stick figures in different positions every panel. Somehow the young man knew this was an expression of the pain of loss, but thought nothing more past that as he made his own trek up and over the wall of the prison cell.

Unlike his comrades, the young man was wounded during his climb over the wall, as his last foothold harbored a very out of place rusted nail, sealed within the mortar of the wall yet sticking up at the now-missing ceiling. The pain was marginal, however, removing himself and his shoe from the nail proved hazardous, as he lost his balance during the last tug and nearly threw himself over the edge. Feeling a new draft in his left shoe, as well as the sensation of blood pooling at his toes, the young man sighed discontentedly and quickly found less-nail-ridden footholds to grab and not end up a shattered, broken ex-prisoner several meters down. He looked left and right to see if Aria had taken a path around the outer wall of the now-empty prison cell to attempt to enter the castle, proper. He sidled to the far left side to get a better look at his surroundings. He saw an extension of the prison he'd just escaped from, as the castle was just as decrepit and mossy as the cell. Before turning to go back, a cat-sized spider latched onto his backpack and began gently kneading on the young man's neck with its front two legs, producing a moment of surprise, than relief, then stark terror, which caused him to violently shake back and forth. As he tried to rip off the backpack he'd been wearing, a voice entered his mind; cold, logical, detached.

 _"Nah, he's cool. Let him in. He's just cold, despite all that fur. Be a pal!"_

"WHAT?! Wha.. who the hell?!"  
 _"Yeah, man, I'm cool. Stop struggling. I'm trying to make a web for you."_

"And now... I'm hearing voices in my head that seem to know about each other. At least they agree on... wait, what do you mean a web for me?!" The young man's spoken question was answered with silent, telepathic mirth from both of his new acquaintances. Despite his precarious hold on the side of the prison wall, the young man couldn't help but wave a hand in utter confusion and reluctant acceptance. He carefully made his way to the lower section of the wall, where it became apparent there was yet another prison cell below the one he'd left, awkwardly jutting out of the side of the castle in a way that would confuse all but the most creative of architects. From roughly 5 meters away, the young man witnessed a verbal exchange happening between his two former cell mates.

Aria examined the sorceress cat Vilossia in much the same way the cat examined her. They locked eyes for a few moments at a time, not in a friendly or hostile way. Aria finally broke the silence after watching the unnamed young man thrashing about several meters above, sending dust and bits of moss cascading down upon the two of them for a few seconds. Once certain the fellow with the inexplicably-acquired backpack wasn't going to come crashing down upon them, she spoke to the white-furred and regal-looking Vilossia. "So, 9th Ebony Kingdom, Grand Sorceress of...?" she prodded.

Vilossia emitted what came off to Aria as a patient sort of purr, slowly shook her head, and regarded her female human companion with a pair of eyes differing in color: One a smoldering dark red which seemed to encapsulate an ongoing wildfire, and the other, a pale gray which made Aria uncomfortable to look at for more than a moment. "You lack the relevant quest items to present to me for me to go into further detail. A rat's tail may suffice..." Vilossia spoke in a gentle, suggestive tone, letting an intrigued glance and tilt of the head further her point.

Aria denied herself from believing it was a simple, straightforward cat desire Vilossia meant for her to fulfill. Clearly, in Aria's mind, a rat's tail held some special meaning to a cat sorceress beyond the obvious, if one such as her were to use that as a bargaining chip. "I promise to find you a rat's tail at some point. Might've had better luck inside the jail cell but there's no shortage of rats anywhere, are there?" she chided. The return expression Vilossia set upon her brought no small amount of concern and confusion to Aria.

"You understand very little, but I like you. CLEAN THAT UP!" Vilossia spouted in her typical psychotic fashion, pointing with her little pink nose to another glowing hairball she'd coughed up at some point during the descent. Aria turned a blank expression to the hairball in question, which was somehow eating a hole through the ceiling of the prison cell they'd dropped onto from above. As she turned her body to follow the cat's request, the young man managed a careful, web-assisted landing near the glowing hairball and in his mind, it made up for previous clumsy moments he hoped no one had been watching.

As the impact bent the shoddy, rusted ceiling inward, causing the young man to scurry over to the far side of the cell, opposite of where Aria and Vilossia had been standing, the glowing hairball rolled down into a rusted-out hole and dropped into the darkness below. Both Aria and the young man stood silently, matching postures and mystified expressions, and watched the glow come to rest on the floor of the seemingly empty prison cell below. Simultaneously, the two humans met each other's gaze and held it for several seconds.

 _"Get her number. She seems nice..."_ the cold voice suggested, obviously teasing, but devoid of amusement.

 _"Oh definitely. Not exactly hard to look at, either! Beautiful green eyes, maroon hair, sweet smile, and it's not like you have that many options, right?"_ the other voice offered.

"I don't even know her, and we met in prison!" the young man complained out loud to his unseen, telepathic companions. Aria tipped her head and looked at him quizzically, glanced at the cat sorceress, then back at him, wearing a crass smile.

"You know, that's not the weirdest outburst I've heard today. What's your name, mister 'my college degree earned me a prison cell'?" Aria asked, cruelly laughing at her own joke. "At least you got a sweet backpack out of it! Got any snacks?"

The young man lifted one finger as his mouth opened to form the vowel sound of his name, as if to accentuate that it was finally his turn to talk.

Suddenly, the young man's world went completely blank, and a dialogue box appeared, encompassing most of his view. He was able to view a 3 dimensional model of himself near the dialogue box. At the topmost portion of this dialogue box was a text prompt to "Name this person". While regarding both a haunting range of mountains in the distance as well as the alphanumerical display within the dialogue box, he surmised the only way to make this bizarre apparition disappear was to assign himself a name.

Before regarding the display more closely, he glanced at himself within the display and saw an option to adjust physical appearance parameters. He gave an impressed snort and looked more closely at himself, wondering what he'd change. The young man saw a fellow barely past twenty, likely the same age as Aria, deep hazel eyes and a strong chin. Nothing remarkable about the face. Average build, somewhat in shape but not for any amount of trying. Adrius saw a "weight" option and figured, he'd probably lose plenty of weight adventuring wherever the hell he was. "It'd be too much to ask to have an adjustable income bar, self-confidence bar, or knowledge of martial arts bar, wouldn't it?" Adrius questioned the dialogue boxes.

He began to point at the letter "A" then reflexively stopped short, expecting a vicious cat to fly towards his eyes. Seeing that the rest of the world was frozen except for himself and the display, he carefully selected the letters necessary to spell "Adrius" and then pointed at the "Confirm" option towards the bottom of the display. A smaller dialogue box popped up to ask the young man if he was certain that this was his name, and after selecting "Yes" both boxes closed and the world remained frozen in time. When another dialogue box appeared, it read,

" **This name is already in use. Please select another or complete a password override to delete the existing account."**

"What sort of weird shit joke is this?!" the young man not yet known as Adrius nearly shouted. He shook his head, thought for a moment, then entered some nonsensical phrase that passed through his head at that moment. "Because you are a puppet," the young man muttered as he typed it in. After an existentially horrifying wait, the display closed and the world unfroze. With his index finger still held up in the air, he managed to get out "Ay-dree..." before the infirm ceiling gave in, once again dumping all of them into a prison cell together.

Vilossia cast a quick spell to land on a patch of dungeon floor mortar transformed into fine-grit cat litter. She immediately became displeased at the sight of the glowing hairball which had fallen down earlier, resting nearby. Aria showcased her acrobatic ability by allowing herself to slide down the collapsing ceiling until just before it changed her center of balance, then ably mid-air cartwheeling onto the top of the oddly-placed chunk of mortar sticking out from the cell wall. From there she did a front flip to land almost silently upon the mortar, followed by Adrius being lowered upside-down by a series of web strands shot out of his backpack. Adrius landed far less quickly and gracefully.

Adrius immediately brushed off the spider silk strands and took care to try to hide the source of it, assuming a cat-sized spider wasn't a welcome sight for any who were unprepared. Seeking any distraction from his unfortunate bout of clumsiness, he garbled together two sentences he was unsure what order to put in. "Door is flipping and its awesome open this time... Aria!"

After another quizzical expression and head tip, Aria gave Adrius an appreciative nod and showed off a little more with a sudden back flip, impressing Adrius but disturbing Vilossia momentarily. "I am.. was a cheerleader, after all. Been doing gymnastics since before that. Just a little over 15 years," Aria explained.

 _"Sounds like a winner to me, bud."_

 _"Yeah! I bet she's pretty flex-..."_

"No, don't even! I'm..." Adrius started to reply, then hid his reddening face by acting like part of the collapsed ceiling held his intense interest. Aria simply shrugged off the outburst, but Vilossia stared hard at Adrius until he finally had the nerve to return his gaze to his once-again cell mates.

"Okay... well he's right. Despite this GRAVEN ATROCITY IN MY PRESENCE I am relieved to know there's a lot less cleaning I'll have to do later, if we take the stairs this time. Aria...," Vilossia started, casting a lethal glance at the glowing hairball nearby. Aria nodded and kicked away the hairball, guiding it into a drain in the center of the cell. The saliva present in the hairball trail offered a faint glow as it bounced and rolled, and disappeared without a trace. "My thanks. Fair warning, if you think I'm grouchy about the hairballs, you damned well better not let me see that stupid chunk of scrap metal I KNOW one of you brought in here again, or there will be so much pee!"

The cold, logical, voice entered Adrius' mind and flatly stated, _"Her peeing on things is a solution to most of what annoys her, saddens her, bores her... She doesn't even need to pee. She's just an asshole."_ Adrius, wary of gaining the sorceress cat's attention in an unwanted way, gave one imperceptible nod and began approaching the wide-open cell door of the cell. _"I will inform you more on our temperamental feline companion, as well as what I am, if you keep her at arm's length and present to me evidence of your worthiness,"_ the voice continued. Adrius noted that Aria's attention was consistently divided between her immediate surroundings and Vilossia, so he elected to venture further away from them before attempting to reply to his unseen telepathic companion. After forming the question in his head Adrius was immediately answered with, _"The only newcomer to this party is the spider, a friend of mine. You and I have met already, when I was in my true form, which Vilossia despises to no end. I take different forms depending on what is expedient for me. You're in good hands, so to speak, so don't leave your backpack laying around for miscreants to pick through. It won't end well for them or you. Other than that, you're free to take the lead and do as you wish."_

Adrius placed his hand upon the right side wall of the hallway outside the cell and, not having adjusted yet to a lack of light source, slowly crept, tapping his foot a pace or two in front of his position to check for hazards. His caution paid off, for after venturing some 5 meters into the dark, he felt a hard object laying on the floor. Adrius chose to kneel and, gritting his teeth for a moment from the pain of the nail having gone through his foot, slowly felt along the edges of the object he'd discovered. It was a longsword, albeit an understandably rusty one with various pits and chinks along its surface. He grasped the handle and felt for a comfortable holding position, feeling satisfied at having been industrious enough to scout ahead and find a weapon of some kind. Possessing no training beyond what he'd witnessed in movies, Adrius held the sword at eye level, slowly lifting it and dropping it to get a feel for its weight, and gave the weapon a practice swing, pointedly away from the wall.

With a second, more meaningful swing, it connected squarely with a creature which had been very close to his position without his knowledge. Not a heartbeat after he yelped in surprise and hopped backwards, a shadowy form leaped over his head, attached itself to the ceiling, then descend upon the creature. As soon as he gathered his wits Adrius attempted to make out the altercation between his spider companion and the new arrival. It was a humanoid reeking of corpses in the heat, somewhat shorter than Aria, (who wasn't much shorter than most, but shorter than average) bristling with fetid nail-claws and jagged, infectious teeth.

 _"This is a ghoul. You did fine with your crappy sword, but stay away from these types for now... you can't afford to get much uglier, undead or not,"_ the spider cautioned. Adrius was almost too startled to register this comment but complied nonetheless. The feral grunts of effort and sounds of thrashing filled the entirety of Adrius's senses, and it echoed down the dark hallway, carrying a message of savage violence for any who drew near. Adrius kept a safe distance away, and was only able to occasionally make out the undead creature attacking his arachnid companion. The creature managed to slam the spider onto the ground at one point and leap down to consume it, but the spider dodged, looped in between and around its legs for a few moments, then leaped onto its back. The ghoul tirelessly raged at its opponent, shredding bits of moss off of walls as well as dismembering itself of two nail-claws on one hand. One of these claws was flung within range of Adrius's adapted vision and the smell which came from the severed part, alone, was enough to make him gag momentarily. It made him wonder why he hadn't noticed the creature, before, but guessed it was downwind of him. The smell from the torn off nail-claw was a clear testament to the nature of the corpse-eating monster.

Aria and Vilossia, who had spent more time examining the contents of the open prison cell before entering the hallway, had begun to explore in the opposite direction before hearing the struggle. Vilossia calling for a halt in an even, authoritative voice caused Aria to snap out of her fear and indecision, once the battle between Adrius, the ghoul, and the spider had started. "I know I don't look like much but stay behind me, Aria," Vilossia stated, and Aria sensed it wasn't coming singularly from desire of safety or convenience for herself. Aria clutched her own weapon she'd found within the cell: a broken-off section of a wooden support beam. The makeshift club she'd fashioned was nearly her height, had stood up to a couple of practice swings against the wall, and was just jagged enough from its flaws to inflict vicious wounds. Brandishing the club gave her a sense of courage, and she made her first step in Adrius's direction pointedly.

Vilossia, in rapid succession, cast two spells as she bounded like a frightened rabbit down the dark hallway. The first completed spell, "Meow Night Light Meow" caused Vilossia's red, churning eye to emit as much red light as a lantern, illuminating everything ahead of them, past even the grappling spider and ghoul. The second spell, "Meow Laser Pointer Meow" was recited as Vilossia did what seemed to be a combat roll and fell into a stationary, aggressive posture. Her gray eye became a violent storm of purple and blue, and this was followed by a thin, silent beam shooting out of her eye and through the ghoul's chest. It was noticed and ignored by the ghoul, who kept trying to smash or eat the spider. A half second after the beam waned from vision, an intensely bright purple and blue beam erupted from her eye, accompanied by what sounded like a bomb slowly going off. This laser was many times larger and lasted a fraction of a second less than the initial beam. It ripped through and disintegrated the ghoul's chest, head and arms in an instant, and every other ghoul which happened to be in its path, for 50 meters, was obliterated. Various unlucky pieces of prison furniture and miscellaneous objects were caught in the blast and also destroyed. Immediately afterwards, to the still alive beings in the hallway, the space around them felt insubstantial, as if they could drop through the floor or disintegrate any given moment.

Aria was stunned by the display, and opted to think more, later, how she could possibly convince Vilossia to teach her sorcery. The thought was repressed and concern for Adrius grew in its place. "Why'd you have to go and start a fight with someone who smells that bad?" she joked as she slowed her approach to her twice-now escaped cell mate.

Adrius turned and shrugged, consciously trying to seem just as calm and confident as Aria, and mock-swung his sword at an imaginary ghoul and mimed hitting it on accident. Aria let loose a giggle, than a nervous laugh which seemed a little too loud to her. Vilossia approached Adrius just as his spider companion launched onto his back and scurried into the largest pocket of the backpack, stealthily re-zipping the bag and falling completely silent. Adrius was distracted from Vilossia's words by the private mystery of how a spider could operate a zipper.

"I was talking to you, young man. Are we bitten?" Vilossia asked as she lifted a foot in the air and licked her chest. Adrius replied with a shake of his head. "Good. Don't get bitten. Ever. You're still insignificant pawns barely out of the trees at this point, so unlike some rather incredible police officers, you can get infected and turned into one of those if you're bitten, even once. I'll blast you. With. Something." Vilossia finished licking herself and trotted past Adrius and the ghoul lacking a chest, head and arms. Her red eye continued to project a suitable amount of red light for the companions to continue down the hallway at a cautious pace.

Adrius did a once-over to check himself for any signs of being injured by the ghoul, but the spider had intervened quickly enough so that wasn't even a distant doubt. His only wound was the no longer bleeding but still irritating to walk on nail wound. He hoped whatever strange new place he'd found himself warped into, with its apparently very different laws of physics and existence of talking animals and spiders, wouldn't have many barriers to a just-in-case tetanus shot. Adrius mused, creatures such as Vilossia and the shape-shifting backpack he wore were likely able to conjure cures for such mundane ailments with half of day of effort. Or perhaps, none at all. He looked at Vilossia's tail swishing back and forth as she led them through various doorways, and up and down several sets of stairs. This made him ponder how old the feline could be, and it brought up another question as to whether her apparently very lengthy life may have contributed to her outbursts. Or, he thought, simply that she was a cat sorceress.

The spider heard Adrius's surface thoughts and telepathically informed him that a large part of her behavior was, indeed, because she was a cat sorceress. Adrius implored the spider to present a name, and that their relationship had escalated in an imbalanced way. Ziedric introduced himself, sharing that Ziedric was as common a name in the spider population as Michael or Robert. Unlike the shape-shifting backpack, Ziedric was willing to share some details of his past with Adrius, and the two had a mutually enjoyed, silent conversation over the course of an hour, while Vilossia entertained Aria's series of questions regarding the world they'd come into. Aria pored over the cat sorceress's knowledge inexhaustibly, and though this drew random scoldings and hissing from the feline, she would revert just as quickly back to her more informative, neutral mood. Aria figured she wasn't used to receiving so much attention.

Facing no further peril other than every so often someone would trip on a stray half-eaten bone or ruined object, the prison escapees eventually found themselves outside the castle and within the perimeter of a large, open courtyard. Dawn approached, and the two humans found themselves quite tired and somewhat emotionally drained from the encounter with the ghoul, as well as constant vigilance.

"I have not been in a castle before. Nor have I been imprisoned. Is it much further before we're completely out of this castle, Vilossia?" Adrius asked while crouching. He was staring at a bee flying near a dandelion. The cat made no reply. Adrius glanced around, and he felt Ziedric's weight shift slightly upon doing so. From experience carrying the creature while he was awake, the lack of readjustment on Ziedric's part made Adrius believe his recent conversation partner had dozed off.

Aria walked over and crouched next to Adrius, curious over what he could find so interesting about a dandelion. "You wanna cough up half for a two-bed motel room? This place is fascinating but I could use a soft bed and a shower about now," she offered. Adrius nodded agreement and removed his backpack. Adrius cautiously glanced left and right before looking into Aria's eyes and pointing with his chin at the backpack. He made the gesture of remaining quiet and calm, pointed towards the backpack zipper, and slowly unzipped it. Before opening the bag entirely, he once again looked at Aria and bade her keep calm. He slowly opened the bag more and revealed most of Ziedric's striped, dull yellow and black form, all his visible legs tucked into his body. Aria stifled her initial, genuine reaction of wonder and appeared speechless. She thoughtfully tapped on her thigh for a moment, wondering how long it'd be before she'd have a chance to change clothing. "Why...?"

Adrius cast his gaze to the ground, recalling his initial meetings with each member of their group. "Ziedric hitched a ride while we were doing parkour over at the prison," Adrius explained. "He didn't want me to fall, so he helped me down. He gets in and out on his own, somehow. He also jumped in when the ghoul showed up earlier."

"Is he heavy?" Aria asked, daring to stroke one of Ziedric's legs. The friction her finger produced on his fur was audible. Adrius shook his head and re-zipped the backpack. He stood up and replaced the backpack in one motion. Aria also stood, then looked around briefly. "Now I'm worried. I haven't heard any hissing or threats of being blasted with pee for several minutes," Aria said, bearing a concerned expression.

Adrius immediately started looking high and low, unconsciously making clicking noises to attract the cat's attention. After a few minutes of checking in various bushes and beautiful-looking plants, as well as near the small number of long-faded statues, Adrius found nothing. Aria shouted, "Hey! Oh wait, never mind!" at one point due to her discovery of what she thought was a faintly-glowing hairball, only to be deceived by her tired perception and a trick of the morning light upon a piece of rubbish. Aria and Adrius reconvened at the center of the courtyard after 10 minutes of searching and calling out, returning disappointed and worried. "I don't know why she'd run off like that. She made it a point to lead us somewhere. Now, why go away when we're not even completely outside the castle grounds yet?" Aria wondered out loud.

Adrius crossed his arms and examined his rusty sword. The single hit to the ghoul made its structural integrity questionable, yet that one blow may have earned him the chance to deflect it from attacking first. "This is probably worth putting away. Won't help us find a cat, and this might be more effective for long time damage, at this point," Adrius muttered, jamming the sword into the ground until it snapped in half. Adrius narrowly avoided receiving another wound from a rusted metal object, which returned his concern over how well inoculated he was against that particular illness. He turned to face Aria again, and began to speak, but was cut off.

"I'm not interested in sleeping just yet. Might want to look around a little more. Do you want to take a nap, Adrius? Go ahead. I'll pull guard or whatever. Just don't bug the little guy!" Aria said cheerfully. She gave him a friendly wave goodbye and went to examine one of the statues.

"Wait, before that.. can you tell me anything Vilossia has shared with you about this place? I know it's not like the world we came from. Clearly. I have a very vague, misty memory of how this a blend of many worlds and some of the things she's referenced are... I know I shouldn't have context for it, but I know she's referenced events and people that, impossible as they sound, are fact and history in this world," Adrius stated.

Aria considered this for a moment, walked slightly closer to Adrius and replied, "She told me there are ways to travel intentionally from one aspect of this world to another, but some are pushed and pulled by a current they can't begin to understand, and... I think she said, if they're not native to the realm, they can be shifted to another place without warning or reason. Not just other places, but other points in time, within the same realm. Vilossia's magic is native, according to her, but I'm not so sure she is. What makes sense here, whatever we've witnessed, could be very different one shift away. I'm not even sure where we are now is necessarily a place consistent enough to be considered a true realm, so..."

Adrius fought off sleep to listen to Aria, and the shock of the incredible new set of rules they were apparently forced to begin learning, as well as how quickly Aria grasped an understanding of something so foreign, amazed him well into his dreams. Aria, feeling thoughtful at a point during her guard shift, admitted to liking that she was paired up with someone like Adrius, who didn't immediately try to flirt with her and genuinely listened to her when she spoke. She decided she may be able to trust him enough to not sleep with a wooden shiv she'd fashioned clutched in her fist as she slept, shrugged, and thought it wouldn't hurt to do it if he was indeed trustworthy. Aria continued her solemn guard shift for two hours, after which she roused Adrius to get up for his.

 _"As I've told you before, I take many forms which expedite my goals. As far as I've projected, it's safe for us to hide out here for a while. No one else is leaving anytime soon unless they want to, and find a way to do so."_

The long-quiet voice came to Adrius halfway through his second guard shift, when the sun was halfway through the sky and ambient critters had gone about their business for a while. The voice, though telepathic, was always lacking in a certain warmth, even during the awkward moments it inflicted upon Adrius when he looked at Aria for more than a fraction of a second. Adrius formed a reply mentally, asking why it chose to speak up now about different forms.

 _"Watch what your backpack does to take care of you. Don't say I never helped."_

Immediately after the last word of the telepathic shape-shifter was transmitted, Ziedric became ejected from the pocket he was resting in onto the ground and sent scurrying away, cussing the whole time, while the backpack inflated to the size of a small building and miraculously, gradually reformed itself into a cottage, superseding any object previously occupying the space it took up. The cottage took up a large amount of the courtyard but was placed in such a way as to not be too close to any walls or large objects. It came complete with iron-barred glass windows, curtains, a dining table and chairs, three beds (two medium sized mattresses on box springs and a dog mattress for Ziedric) a cold storage container and small fire pit, as well as a handful of field rations encased in durable, flexible material. After the three retired to their respective beds and rested several hours, the cold voice returned to pass a message to Adrius and Aria.

 _"The cat will not be returning here for what might be a very long time. Rest as much as you like, eat. This form will be maintained for your recuperation and preparation for the next shift. It is in the middle of the night, tomorrow. Avail yourselves of the inventory I've prepared and cast off all your current belongings. They aren't shifting with you. The next place we will be going appears to have been, relatively speaking, recently ravaged by nuclear war and the remnants of human society are struggling to rebuild. You'll learn to defend yourselves and survive by any means necessary. Do not put trust in each other unless you are certain you're willing to expose a fatal opening to an enemy you once trusted! Until we meet again."_

The cryptic warning in the middle of the night was enough to make both recipients uncomfortable, and no one, save Ziedric telepathically making nonsensical proclamations during sleep, said a word for the next several hours.

Both of the humans perused the shape shifter's inventory at their leisure. No weapons or armor were available, but there were two curiously well-fitted wrist apparatuses for each of them put on. It was a cross between a glove and a black leather-resembling gauntlet. The glove apparatuses possessed no buttons or dials of any kind, but felt like high-priced equipment. The two toyed around with their newfound possessions for a few minutes, and discovered they were capable of instantly manifesting not only acquired weapons, but clothing, armor, and other mundane items almost at will. Aria's wooden shiv and makeshift club were available for selection, as well as Adrius's sword, still broken. He became irritated the useless weapon was even an option, but elected to try to remain grateful such a boon was given to him. Both had produced new sets of practical, hike-worthy clothing and footwear for themselves as well as various camping/hiking items they could carry in their individual backpacks. The backpack Aria manifested for herself was much like Adrius's, in that it contained supernatural storage ability not revealed by the innocuous appearance. Many items could fit into the backpacks themselves, far beyond what would be considered possible for something occupying that much space. Adrius picked around in the accessories category and discovered rings of various purposes, some of which sounded too incredible for him to want to try immediately. One ring he discovered enabled distant contact between mutual wearers, and convinced Aria it'd be very helpful to at least settle on that level of trust. Aria silently concurred and chose to wear the same ring. She immediately performed a telepathic mic check to just get a reaction out of Adrius. He smiled and nodded, gesturing towards Ziedric as if that was all that was necessary to express the point.

"I don't like to admit that what that voice said about a fatal opening is something that is going to stick with me. But it is. I don't have anything against you and I think you're decently nice guy. But we don't know each other. We're being made to travel through this world together for some reason and I think it's better to have someone to watch my back. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a threat. But I'll chop you to pieces if you give me a reason to. You will not fear anyone more than myself if it comes to that. Do you and I have an understanding?" Aria spoke, clearly and sincerely, to her companion.

Adrius, choosing a more meaningful response than a simple head nod, replied, "I think I can understand that. I won't promise I'll never go against you in any way. I'm not a fan of backstabbing or hurting people in general. Just... don't turn into a ghoul."

Aria nodded, and flatly replied, "You neither."


End file.
